Rising price of coaching worries NCAA's Brand

Published: Friday, March 30, 2007

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA - NCAA president Myles Brand expressed concern Thursday about runaway coaching salaries, but said it was up to individual schools and universities to police themselves when it comes to new hires.

"The NCAA can't do anything about it," Brand said at his annual Final Four news conference. "We don't make the hires or set the budgets of the institutions."

Brand, though, said he thinks university presidents have to take a look at the escalating salaries. They reached new levels with the eight-year, $32 million contract Nick Saban signed to coach the Alabama football team, and there is speculation at the Final Four that Florida coach Billy Donovan could leave for Kentucky for a similarly priced deal.

"I think we have to begin asking some very hard questions," Brand said. "It raises the question of propriety for colleges and universities. Is this the appropriate thing to do within the context of college sports?"

Brand, who has previously questioned both salaries and the increasing "arms race" of schools building athletic facilities, was forced to defend the organization's tax-exempt status to a congressman last year in light of the heavy spending on athletics.

But he said the NCAA has no ability to regulate salaries, and plays only a limited role in how its schools finance athletics. Still, he said, it was troubling to see some college coaches making more money than their counterparts in the pros.

"At what point do you believe that it does not make sense? Each school will have to figure it out for themselves," Brand said. "I don't think schools should be moving in this direction without giving it some serious thought."

 Expanded tournament

On the subject of expanding the NCAA tournament, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim concedes he probably isn't the greatest person to ask.

"Somebody else better take that one," Boeheim said when asked about it during a National Association of Basketball Coaches news conference. "If it was retroactive, I think it would be a great idea."

Syracuse was largely regarded as the team most unfairly left out of the 65-team field this season. Boeheim has been on the expansion bandwagon before, even in years when the Orange made it easily.

A record 104 teams won 20-plus games this season, which bolsters the argument for an expanded field.

"It's something that coaches, I think, feel very strongly about, that there should be some level of expansion," Rice coach Willis Wilson said. "But I think it's going to take more than just a basic conversation to figure out what that number is."